The infamous Rocky Mountains of Coors Light change from white to blue, marking a significant development in the graphic arts industry through the successful application of thermochromic inks on primary packaging technology.
Molson Coors Brewing Company (MCBC) launched the widely successful beer brand across Canada almost a decade ago - but how did they do it?
In a special interview with Senior Project Manager, Mark Sukovich of Molson Coors and Lead Label Ink Developer Scott Szafraniec of LCR Hallcrest*, we learn about the technical intricacies of thermochromic ink development as well as the strategic decisions they make for the commercial success of the beer brand.
A Change in Scenery
“The Coors Light Blue mountains lead to many innovations and brand growth strategies over the last 15 years,” said in a combined response from Mark Sukovich and Scott Szafraniec. “The goals and objectives of ‘The World’s most Refreshing Can’ evolution was to educate the consumer about the experience value of drinking beer at the proper temperature. Using thermochromic and visually color changing technology made the communication mechanism simple and affordable for the consumer to understand.”
According to LCR Hallcrest, thermochromic ink technology changes colour in response to temperature. The ink technology can be composed of two constituents: liquid crystals and leuco dyes. Leuco Dyes change color in response to changes in temperature and are activated through touch, or in the case of Coors Light, activated by the cold.
Coors Light had introduced the first beer cans with thermochromic ink technology to the Canadian market, but being the first to pursue such an ambitious task does not come without a challenge or two.
“Residual color in the warm state was not desired - the mountains still had a slight blue cast versus white when warm - yet getting as blue as possible when cold was a must,” Sukovich began. “This gradually changed over time and a stronger blue was developed. Cans originally had to be double activated - the first step was cold activated when filling, labels required two hits of thermochromic ink (requiring two ink stations).”
He further explained the hurdles faced by his team in the area of graphic design regarding shelf impact at the point of purchase, such as “overprint white, white strokes around thermo, location limitations on cans (neck) and labels (cut line), thermo on neck vs. body labels (beer fill line), abrasion, COF, ice bath, can & bottle conveyance, label application at breweries (basket feeder performance), etc.”
From the perspective of label ink development, Szafraniec lists a few challenges of his own as well. “Technical challenges included generating enough coat weight to get desired colors by the brand team. Running this on a high speed gravure press and meeting press speeds of 800-1000 feet per minute was something the industry had never done prior to this,” he explained.
He continued to list other examples, such as the “[d]urability of the water based ink for this application, die-cutting, the step draw that the heavy coat weight created and temperature tolerances that had to be reliable and repeated. This was especially critical when the brand team innovated a two stage activation label/can promotion with hidden messages.”
We asked him another question regarding the possibility if the performance of the ink would suffer with repeated exposure to light, heat and other external variables.
“Yes”, Szafraniec answered. “UV light is the # contaminator of thermochromics. Repeat exposure of hot to cold over and over again is not a concern as thermochromic capsules can survive very high temps of 350F degrees without degrading.”
A Plan for Success
As senior project manager, we asked Sukovich how his team knew when they were ready to launch their product. “Consumer perception and buy-in to ‘rocky mountain cold refreshment’ was key to launch,” he answered. “Trials and testing first in focus groups to determine the marketing idea was critical to the commencement of this brand promotion.
In parallel, technical testing and trials in smaller markets were executed to understand commercial feasibility and associated risks. Vetting manufacturing issues for consistency was a big hurdle in the project management process 'if one can or bottle doesn’t activate, or activates at the wrong temperature and the beer is warm?’ There was a big risk to the brand identity and marketing message.
Coors Light is produced across many manufacturing plants, reliability and repeatability were key to launch criteria,” he continued.
“Managing best practices in manufacturing, standard operating procedures (SOP’s), and quality control was not easy - and still isn’t. Health and Safety were also a concern in manufacturing, retail environments, and end of life sustainability.”
We further enquired how his team evaluated success. “Evaluation of project success included increased consumer awareness and market share lift,” he shared.
Coors Light was indeed successful when it was first launched in the Canadian Market fifteen years ago, and still remains to be one of the most successful light beer brands in the country. We asked them if they could share memorable comments or reactions from competitors and consumers following their launch.
“It wasn’t just the PR/U.S. domestic/Canada beer market that was using thermochromics," they claimed. "World-wide beverage companies tried to use thermo or ‘change’ inks to gain consumer loyalty: Coke with the polar bears, Bush Lite, Brahma in South & Central America using a color changing thermometer graphic on packaging, Miller LITE with palm trees - yes, they were first. Today, this technology has broadened its product application to include pharmaceutical packaging expiration identification and anti theft or counterfeiting support mechanism.”
Ten Years Later
“Thermochromics popularity has definitely grown because of the launch of the Coors light blue mountains,” they stated.
“Look at the marketplace today; You see them in toys, clothing and the largest coffee chain in the world uses them in their POP cups/reusable cups for both their cold and hot coffees,” they continued. “You are seeing thermochromics used for safety and process validation tools as mentioned above - Anywhere there is temperature, thermochromics could be used. It then pivots to other ink innovation applications such as photochromics which Coors Light has used in Canada. The challenge for CPG’s (consumer product goods companies) is coming up with a graphic or design to win consumers to their brand.”
They assured us, “[n]o one has nailed thermo blue, ‘rocky mountain cold refreshment’ like Coors Light - it’s a lot like Coke red or the Golden Arches, it was simple, with a large memorable brand identity impact.”
.
Notes
*Scott Szafraniec of LCR Hallcrest was responsible for the ink development on the label, whereas Chromatic Technologies Inc (CTI) was responsible for the ink development on the can.
.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Mark Sukovich of Molson Coors and Scott Szafraniec of LCR Hallcrest for participating in this interview. We would also like to thank Donna Abdelrazik of Ryerson University for connecting us with our special guests.
.
.
What Comes Next?
Next week, we choose to explore a less researched and even lesser known aspect of UV inks and that is the ability to provide accessibility to the visually impaired.
.
.
Check out our socials to stay updated!
Instagram: @protechpackaging
Linkedin: @protech-packaging-solutions
Comments